macos 14 is only arm64

[wmertens]

Description

I specify

  build-bindings:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        settings:
          - host: macos-latest
            target: x86_64-apple-darwin

but I get an arm64 host. Are there no more x64 hosts for macos 14?

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Ubuntu 22.04
• macOS 11
• macOS 12
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022

Image version and build link

Image: macos-14-arm64
Version: 20240415.6

Is it regression?

not sure

Expected behavior

should get latest macos with x64, even if that's not the latest macos

Actual behavior

get arm64

Repro steps

ask for x64 macos-latest runner

[mikhailkoliada]

Hello! As stated in the table the only intel-based macOS-14 runner is macos-14-large (doc). There are no plans to introduce macOS-14 intel standard runners as of now.

[javierggt]

I'm sorry, but if I understood correctly, @wmertens is not trying to run macOS-14 specifically. He uses macos-latest. He assumed macos-latest would be macOS-14, but the actual issue is with macos-latest.

I just hit an issue where I'm using macos-latest to build a conda package, and it determines the platform is ARM, so I might have the same issue.

Is the problem that macos-latest is indeed macOS-14? I was under the impression that macos-latest would not be an ARM platform.

[nulano]

https://github.com/actions/runner-images?tab=readme-ov-file#available-images shows macos-latest as being an ARM platform.

[mikhailkoliada]

Starting OS14 standard runners are going to be arm based, i.e. standard OS13 runner is intel but OS14 and further are the arm ones. As of macOS-latest, it is being transited from OS12 to OS14

[marcprux]

There are no plans to introduce macOS-14 intel standard runners as of now.

@mikhailkoliada This presents a problem for runners that need to build and test both iOS and Android apps (such as Flutter and React Native projects). They generally use the popular https://github.com/ReactiveCircus/android-emulator-runner action, but due to the inability to run nested virtualization on the macOS ARM runners, there is as of now no way to build and test projects on both an iOS simulator (which require macOS) and an Android emulator (which cannot be run on the ARM runners due to the lack of nested virtualization support).

This is also discussed at ReactiveCircus/android-emulator-runner#350, and in the issues of a slew of other projects that are going to be stuck on the macos-13 runners until they age out, at which point they will be stranded.

Having a macOS-14 Intel standard runner would solve this problem.

[str4d]

The other issue is that, prior to now, all *-latest runners were x86_64. Switching macos-latest from x86_64 to ARM64 breaks a bunch of workflows that involve caching (e.g. #9732 (comment)), because the caching approaches that GitHub recommends (e.g. here) pattern-match on runner.os.

[wmertens]

Right, I think it would be better to either:

• make the combo macos-latest+x86 be macos-13
• fail the CI when macos-latest+x86 is requested

[MordechaiHadad]

I am unable to use x86 runner for macos, it complains about billing or something but this is an open source project I have been using gh actions for, for a few years now and I have never had to pay anything. And every other job that doesn't use macos-latest-large works correctly as well.

Workflow file:

on: push

jobs:
  arm:
    runs-on: macos-latest
    steps:
      - name: Get architecture
        run: uname -m
  regular:
    runs-on: macos-latest-large
    steps:
      - name: Get arch again
        run: uname -m

[Mizux]

I am unable to use x86 runner for macos, it complains about billing or something but this is an open source project I have been using gh actions for, for a few years now and I have never had to pay anything. And every other job that doesn't use macos-latest-large works correctly as well.

Workflow file:

on: push

jobs:
  arm:
    runs-on: macos-latest
    steps:
      - name: Get architecture
        run: uname -m
  regular:
    runs-on: macos-latest-large
    steps:
      - name: Get arch again
        run: uname -m

Did you try to use macos-13 instead to have an intel based runner ? or do you need a macOS 14 specifically ?
ref: https://github.com/actions/runner-images

[karlhorky]

Copying the comment from @peterlazar1993 , looks like it could be interesting for theoretical future GitHub Actions runners on M3 chips with macOS Sequoia:

You cannot run a VM(android emulator) inside a VM on M1, M2 macs.

M3 macs with OSX15 (upcoming), will allow nested virtualisation - forum.parallels.com/threads/macos-15-sequoia-nested-virtualization-for-m3-macs.364397